AI to drive Mirae Asset's next-phase growth: chairman

Mirae Asset Group is a pioneer in South Korea’s mutual fund industry. It launched the country’s first equity mutual fund in the wake of the 1997-98 Asia financial crisis as an unfledged brokerage house at the time.

It has since diversified into other asset classes and overseas markets to grow into South Korea's largest asset manager and brokerage company with a strong foothold in Asia. 

Now it sees a new growth momentum from AI that would allow it to offer various investment products at much lower fees.

“At Mirae Asset, we have laid the foundation for our global AI expansion by establishing Wealthspot in the US this year and acquiring Australia's leading robo-advisor Stockspot last year,” the group’s founder and Chairman Park Hyeon-joo said on Wednesday.

“This marks just the starting point for our next major business transformation, targeting improved client outcomes at much lower fees ... Our goal is to implement an intelligent organization-wide AI platform."

He gave the remarks in his acceptance speech after being named International Executive of the Year by the Academy of International Business (AIB). AIB is a global community of over 3,000 academics.

“Technology has radically transformed financial services, yet investors, from individuals to pension plans, continue paying significant fees for many investment products and services ... In this regard, artificial intelligence has emerged as a powerful potential solution to transform the future of finance,” he told the audience at AIB 2024 Seoul, its annual gathering.

 
Mirae Asset manages or advises over $600 billion across various investment strategies and has an established global network spanning 19 countries.

It is the 12th-largest exchange-traded fund (ETF) provider in the world with over $125 billion under management for ETF products.

“We now embark on the next 20-year chapter of our global expansion with the recent acquisitions of Sharekhan in India and GHCO, a liquidity provider to ETFs in the UK, and with Stockspot, an AI robo-advisor in Australia,” Park said.

The International Executive of the Year Award recognizes business leaders’ commitment to significantly improving the reputation and performance of their respective firms on the international stage.

Park was awarded the honor in recognition of his leadership in developing Mirae Asset as a top-tier global asset manager. AIB described him as “the father of South Korea’s mutual fund industry.”

He has become the second Korean entrepreneur to be honored with the award after the late founder and chairman of SK Group, Chey Jong-hyun, received the award in 1995.

Its other recipients include Aki Morita, the late co-founder of Sony Group, in 1983; Peter Sutherland, the late chairman of Goldman Sachs, in 1998; and Muhtar Kent, former chairman and CEO of Coca-Cola, in 2013.

Write to Man-Su Choe at bebop@hankyung.com

Yeonhee Kim edited this article.